Refrigerator.



HELLSTROM.

REFRIGERATOR. APPLIOATION FILED AUG, 19, 1912.

a l 9 i 7v 1 e M u d m H m a P Z SHEETS-SHEET 1.

5 IV.SHE LLSTROM.

' REFRIGERATOR.

Patented June 17,1913.

III III VICTOR S. HELLSTROM, OF DUBOIS, PENNSYLVANIA.

REFRIGERATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 1'2, 1913.,

Application filed AugustlS, 1912. Serial No. 715,855.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that l", VICTOR S. HELLSTROM, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Dubois, in the county of Clearfield and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain -new and useful Improvements in Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in refrigerators, and has for one of its objects to provide means in a refrigerator whereby the water from the melting ice runs over the container which receives the articles to be kept in a cool state, thus utilizing the cool water for refrigerating purposes, before such water is allowed to escape from-the refrigerator..

A further object of my invention .is to provide a refrigerator having a removable container for holding the articles that are placed in the refrigerator, whereby to facilitate the ready cleaning of the refrigerator at any time desired.

A still further object is to provide in a refrigerator a water shedding pan so constr ucted as to directthe water flowing from the melting ice down around and over the outside of the article container, and which water shedding pan when in position in the refrigerator acts to hold the removable container proper y positioned within its-compartment in the refrigerator.

The invention resides in the novel.. construction, combination and arrangement of partly broken away to show the article con-- tainer beneath the same. Fig. 3' is a front elevation of a refrigerator in accordance with this invention, the doors of the several compartments being shown in the open position. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the container removed from the efrigerator. Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail view partly in section, showing one of the fastening members by means of which the removable front door stile is held infixed position in the refrigerator casing, and Fig. dis a sectional detail view of the water shedding pan and article container, taken on line 66 of Fig. 3, showing more clearly how the pan when in position serves to prevent withdrawal of the article container until the pan is raised.

To put my invention into practice, I provide a case 10, which it will be understood may be of any desired construction, that is, the walls may be solid as shown, .or they may be packed with insulating material, as is common in the construction of refriger. ator casings. The said case comprises two. side walls, a back and a top together with a bottom. along the bottom edge of the sidev walls,

along the bottom edge of the rear wall, and

along the front, with an inwardly projecting ledge 11, and the bottom 12 of said case is preferably sloped from eachside or end of the refrigerator to the central line, as

clearly illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawings,

so as to conduct the water to an outlet 14 provided at the lowest point of the bottom,

in any desired location between the front and rear of the casing.

The front of the refrigerator casing comprises a bottom rail 15, a removable stile 16, and a door frame 17. The said frame comprises an upper and a lower rail and two connecting vertical stiles, and is fitted in the front of the casing directly below the top of such casing. The stiles 17 of said frame are spaced so as to provide two end openings 1S and a central opening 19 of greater area than the end openings 18. The end openings 18 are closed by means of doors 20, and the central opening 19 by means of a door 21, these doors being hinged to the casing, and secured by any suitable fastening members 22. The doors 20 are hinged so as to swing to the side, and the door 21 is hinged' so as to swing downward, in order that any of the doors may be opened without interfering with either of the other doors which may be in open position.

; The lower portion of the case is closed by a pair of doors 28, hinged to the case so as to swing toward the sides or ends of the case like the doors 20. These doors 23 are preferably provided in their upper portions with transparent panels 24, and they are This case is provided interiorly,

sockets, t e stile 16 can be pulled outwardly tion.

the stile carries two slidable catches or bolts 26 which take into sockets provided therefor in the lower rail of the frame 17 Similarly, the stile 16 carries at its lower enda like pair of slidable fasteners or bolts which take into sockets as 27 provided therefor in the lower rail 15. As will be obvious, by retractin the sliding bolts 26 from their to remove it from its seat in the rail 15 and in the lower end of the .rail of the frame 17 This stile is made removable so that the container to be hereinafter described may be removed from the casing.

The sides or ends of the casing, the back,

' and the bottom of such casing are provided rear bars of such lower frame.

' secured ends or sides 33.

with a lining 10, continuous from the ledge 11 to the top.

Mounted within the casing, so as to be bodily removable therefrom, is a container shown in detail in Fig. 4. This container rests upon and is supported by the ledge 11. It is held positioned properly within the casing so as to provide a space 10 be tweenthe end walls of the container and the end walls of the casing, and between the back wall of the container and the back wall of the casing, by suitable brackets 28 located at the corners between the end walls of the casing and the back wall of such casin The container, like the lining 10, is preferably constructed of enameled sheet metal.

It embodies in its construction an upper frame 29 and a lower frame 30. The upper frame 29 comprises front and rear bars and end bars, while the lower frame 30 embodies similar front, rear and end bars, and a pair of central bars 31 connecting the front and To the rear bar of the upper frame 29 and the rear bar of the lower. frame 30 is secured a back 32. To the end bars of the upper frame 29 and the end bars of the lower frame 30 are Secured to the back 32 centrally between its ends so as to aline with the bars 31 is a pair of forwardly extending strips 34 spaced apart so as to form a guide-way 35 which receives the rear edge of a dividing partition 36, which separates the container into two compartments. The front edge of this dividing partition is received near its upper end between inwardly-extending spaced flanges carried by a front stile 37 of the container, the stile positioned to aline transversely of the container with the guide 35. Said stile 37 is conveniently constructed of two vertical rods around which a sheet iron strip is wrapped,,the rods being held at their upper ends to the front railof the frame 29 by a clip 38, and at their lower ends held to the front rail of t frame 30 by 'a similar clip 39. A rest is provided for the lower end of the partition'36 by securing a metal strip to the rods 31, which strip, indicated at' 40 in Fig. 1 may extend throughout the length of the rods 31, or be positioned only at the ends thereof as desired.

, The strips 34 secured to the back 32 have their outer edges turned at right angles to the body of the strip to provide supporting ledges 41 for the shelves 42 arranged within the body of the container. The sheet metal strip forming a part of the stile 37 ispro vided with similar ledges 43. These ledgesare preferably notched in their upper ends, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 4, so as to form seats for the rods 44 of the shelves 42. The shelves 42 are constructed of sheet metal, the ends of the sheet bein wrapped around the rods 44, and the rods 44 projecting beyond the shelves at the front and rear edges of the latter so as to engage the seats in said ledges 43 as will 'be evident.

/ Similar ledges 41 are provided at the rear corners of the container, and at the front corners like ledges 43 are provided.

The above description of the supporting shelves applies to a sheet metal shelf. The two base shelves 45 are preferably of a slotted construction, and formed of front and rear bars 46 of angle iron construction con nected by transverse rods, the angle bars resting upon the front and rear. bars respectively of the lower frame. In Fig. 3 the uppermost supporting shelves are shown as being of slatted construction, which will obviously have the two sides thereof provided with the projecting rods toengage in the seats ledges.

Access is had to the ice chamber 47 through the openings l8, l8 and 19. The interior of this ice chamber is divided by swinging partitions into compartmepts. These partitions are each double, that is a provided in the supporting sheet metal partition 48 is provided, and a slatted partition 49 both hung on a common pintle rod 50 near the top ofthe refrigerator, which'at its ends is journaled in the back'wall of the case and in the stiles 17 respectively. The. sheet metal partition may be swung upwardly independently of the slatted partition49. The slatted partition 49 has end flanges 51. The rear end flangeshave notches 52 to engage with stop pins 53 carried by the rear wall of the easing which limits the swinging movement of these partitions toward the sides or ends of the casing. By the use of-these partitions,

anice chamber may-be separated into compartments, or the partitions may be swung upwardly toward the top so as to provide a single large chamber. The sheet metal partitions 48 may alone beswung up, so that are provided as many air circulation openings 56 as desired, which in order to prevent their closure, or the entrance of water into the container are covered by hoods 57.

The back wall of the refrigerator casing carries a supporting rail 58, which together with the front rail (if the frame 17 constitutes a support for the ice receiving trays 59 placed thereon and which are removable therefrom. Thesetrays are generally of a slatted form so that the water from the melting ice will pass readily onto the water shedding pan 54. The water sheddingpan 54 has flanged ends 60 which fit over the ends of the container, its rear edge 61 is flanged downwardly to fit over the rear rail of the top frame of the container, and at its front edge is provided with an upwardly extending flange 62 ,which prevents any water flowing over the front edge of the pan. The said front edge of the pan is also provided with a downwardly-extending flange 63 corresponding to the, flanges and 61, which fits over the front rail of the upper frame 29 of the container. The water shedding pan is placed in position by introducing the same into the casing prior to placing the container therein, swinging. up the partitions in the ice compartment, and raising the water shedding pan up into the ice compartment, where it may be supported in any suitable manneruntil the container is introduced into the casing, when the ice shedding pan is allowed to rest upon the top of the container as shown in Fig. 1 preventing the container being withdrawn until the pan is raised.

With such a construction it will be observed that the ice supported on the trays 59 is directly above the water shedding pan, andas the water from the melting ice drops on this pan it is directed toward each end and toward the back edge of the pan, and flows downwardly over the ends of the container and over the back of the container discharging finally into the space 64 below thecontainer where it escapes to the outlet. At any time that it is desired to remove the container for cleaning or other purposes, it is only necessary to swing up the partitions in the ice chamber, remove the ice supporting trays 59, and then raise the pan 54 ofl' the container, up into the ice chamber where it may be supported by bars resting on the lower frame rail 17 and rail 58. Upon the removal of stile 16 by retracting the sliding fastening bolts 26, stile 16 can be readily pulled outwardly, and the con tainer may then be bodily removed from the casing.

The swinging partitions in the ice compartment provide means for dividing the compartment as may be desired. All ofthe water from the melting ice being conducted over the container before being finally discharged from the casing serves to keep the container cool and also induces circulation of air'about and through the container, to the better preservation of the articles contained therein. 1

' What I claim is In a refrigerator, a casing having a container receiving chamber and an ice chamber thereabove, removable ice-supporting trays separating the chambers, a container removably-mounted in the container receiving chamber and spaced from the casing upper end of the container to direct the water from the pan over the side and end Walls of the container, said pan also acting toprevent withdrawal of the container :while the pan is positioned thereon.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

VICTOR S. HELLSTROM.

Witnesses:

GUSTAV E. ERICSSON, A. I-IEnNcUs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' v Washington, D10. 

